Union Budget 2024: For last some years, the Union Budget is presented every year on February 1. In the Budget, the government presents complete accounts of income and expenditure in the upcoming financial year.
This year, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present her record sixth budget, which will be an Interim Budget.
It will be new chapter in the history of India's Budget, which was first presented by Shanmukham Shetty, India's first Finance Minister, on November 26, 1947.
However, this time, being an election year, the Finance Minister will present an Interim Budget, which will feature the expenditure of the government till Lok Sabha general elections in April-May.
The new government will present the full budget after the elections.
Though many of the traditions of India's Union Budget remains the same, some of its customs have gone through sea changes.
There was a time when Union Budget timings were tuned to the British time.
But those traditons along with many others were ended by the then political establishments.
In this write-up, we take you through major changes that have taken place since independence in 1947.
Budget started being published in Hindi along with English
From 1947 to 1955, the Union Budget was published only in English. But in 1955–56, the government broke away with the British Raj-era tradition and started publishing it in Hindi also.
The credit for this goes to the country's third Finance Minister CD Deshmukh. Deshmukh was a former Civil servant who was also the first Indian Governor of the Reserve Bank of India.
The British government made him the third Governor of the Reserve Bank of India in 1943. He held this post till June 30, 1949.
NDA govt changed time of presenting budget
Till 1999, the budget was presented at 5 pm.
This tradition was going on since the British period.
It was done to tune the British timings, where the budget was presented at 11 am.
To keep pace with the British timings, the timing of India's Union Budget was set at 5 pm.
This tradition was not changed even after many decades since independence.
But while presenting the budget for the financial year 1999-2000, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in the NDA government changed this tradition and it was presented at 11 am on 27 February 1999.
Since then, the budget is presented every year at 11 am.
Budget presentation date changed in 2017
Before 2017, the budget was presented every year at the end of February.
This tradition was changed in the Modi government.
In the year 2017, the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the budget for the first time on 1 February.
Since then, the tradition of presenting the budget on 1 February continues.
Railway budget was merged with general budget
Till 2016, Railway Budget and General Budget were presented separately, but in 2017, Railway Budget was merged with General Budget.
The then Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley, presented the first joint budget of independent India on February 1, 2017.
With this, the practice of presenting a separate railway budget, which had been going on since 1924, came to an end.
Paperless budget came during COVID-19 pandemic
Before independence and for many years after independence, leather briefcases or bags were used to keep budget documents.
But Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman broke this record.
After the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the budget for the year 2021-22 was presented paperless.
